


there's nothing in this world we can't fix with some scissors and glue

by ivyrobinson



Category: Next to Normal - Kitt/Yorkey
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22972099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyrobinson/pseuds/ivyrobinson
Summary: various ficlets for henry/natalie
Relationships: Natalie Goodman/Henry
Kudos: 10





	1. wedding day

**Author's Note:**

> happy march 1st, y'all!

“This is so stupid,” Natalie announced, as she entered Henry’s room and sat down on the bed with quite the flourish. 

Henry looked away from the mirror, to turn his head and arch his eyebrow at her. “I love you too.” He leaned against the wall to address her. “I don’t know if that sentiment or if the fact that you just barged into the room in your wedding dress is a worse sign for our marriage.” 

She wrinkled her nose at that word. It sounded so grown up. It sounded like a choice she was willingly making. Which she was, but who even came up with the word marriage or wedding or any of that shit? “This isn’t my wedding dress, this is a slip. I’m not getting married to you in my underwear.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not getting married to you at all.” 

“Okay,” he agreed easily, which always made her feel uneasy. Whenever Henry agreed with her, she ended up doing what she was avoiding. He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge next to her. “What do you want to do then?”

“What do you mean?” She questioned turning slightly to face him. They probably looked ridiculous. Her in a slip and heels, and him half dressed in a suit. Okay, she looked ridiculous. He looked good. “Right now instead of a wedding?”

“Yes,” he said, reaching over and putting his hand on her back. She relaxed, letting her hands drop back down to her lap. “Tell me what you want to do or where you want to go, and I will go with you.” 

Well, obviously she had not thought that far ahead. As far as Natalie had thought had been a sudden burst of crushing anxiety about getting married and that they had actually invited people to this thing. Not many but more than just her and Henry. 

So instead, she asked, “What about your wedding?”

Henry laughed softly and placed a kiss against her cheek. “I don’t care about the wedding, just the bride.” 

Natalie let out a sound of exasperation and fell back on the bed, and Henry laid down beside her. “Why did I agree to this?”

She meant the wedding and not the marriage, so she took that as a good sign for their relationship. 

“You were dazzled by the ring and not thinking right,” he teased. 

Natalie twisted the ring in question between her fingers. She did rather like her ring. It was a round sapphire ring nestled between two smaller diamond ones. She didn’t think anyone would ever quite know her the way Henry did. Herself included. 

“Such sorcery,” she agreed. 

He slid his hand over hers, and leaned in and kissed her on the lips. She was rather lucky to be with someone to have such good humor about her freak outs and not take it personally. Of course, she wouldn’t be with anyone that did not. 

“Hey,” he said when he pulled away. “I have an idea of what we should do instead of have a silly wedding.” 

“Yeah?” Natalie asked. If they could skip the wedding and just be married instead that would help. They should have eloped. 

“Want to make out instead?”

Natalie laughed, and reached over and pressed her palm against his cheek. Then pulled his face closer to hers, and was briefly hit by the memory of the first time she wanted to kiss him sitting too close to her on the piano bench in the music room and being all too aware that he was too close and feeling like a stupid, normal girl for the first time. This time she did kiss him. 

“Maybe.” 

“I will maybe make out with you the rest of my life,” he promised and she laughed. Her too. Marriage was such a stupid meager thing compared to their relationship. It was probably the closest thing to a romantic thought Natalie would ever let herself have.

Outwardly she sighed, not moving her hand from his face. “Why am I with you?” 

“Because I wouldn’t let my mom draw up a prenup and you can’t wait to divorce me,” he teased. He looped his arm loosely around her. He felt warm. And was probably crushing his nice suit. Good he was more Henry if he was rumpled.


	2. walden pond

“You’re a very strange girl,” Henry’s roommate told her as he opened the fridge door and pulled out a Red Bull. Natalie thought he might be Paul, but she didn’t quite keep track of Henry’s two roommates. Nor did they make many appearances at their own apartment. 

They usually didn’t come back on Friday nights until Henry and her were already enclosed in his room and when they got up and out for the day they weren’t yet up. Sometimes she joked that she wasn’t quite convinced that he even had roommates. 

But now it was deep into Saturday afternoon, and Henry had a paper that was due on Monday and for once was doing homework in front of her. Well sort of, he was in the living room with his laptop while she was at the kitchen table. She had homework of her own to do but hadn’t grabbed her laptop before leaving her dorm.

She could head back to her dorm and do homework there, but she felt restless rather than focused and also it really was rarely that she ever saw Henry do some sort of homework so she wanted to witness that. Natalie had also found a model car kit when they had been out last night and had made a Duane Reade stop before returning to his apartment. 

So now she had all the parts and pieces scattered out (well in neat piles by type and when she would need them) on the table as Bach played in the background. She supposed that would seem strange to the average college student.

“Actually,” Natalie returned, glancing up from her task. “Glue is meant for this, not for eating.” 

Paul-or-not-Paul gave a startled laugh before shaking his head, and disappearing into the black hole that Henry’s roommates seemed to fall into. 

A few moments later, Henry walked into the kitchen. His glasses were somewhat askew and his brown hair looked rumpled and he was still in his sweatpants and t-shirt from the night before. He picked up her phone that had been playing Bach and switched it over to Coltrane. 

She scrunched her nose, and he leaned over and kissed the top of her head. They had set limits to how long each person got to change the music. It was her rule. Or maybe it was his rule. Sometimes when Henry started negotiating with her she got confused over whose idea was whose. 

“I’m done with school,” he announced, nudging her slightly so she’d push over. 

“The essay?” Natalie asked and she scooted over a little and he sat on the free space of the chair. “Or the institution altogether?” 

He paused, tilting his head. She stayed focus on her car. “I’d say institute but you won’t let me so essay it is.” 

Natalie rolled her eyes. “You say that like I am forcing you to attend college. At gunpoint.” 

“Well…” 

She brought her elbow back to hit him in the side, and he reached over to readjust her. “Henry.”

“Nat Attack,” he mimicked her tone. “Fine. University is fine. I love it. Can’t wait to go to class on Monday. Assign me more papers. Give me more exams. I love it.” 

“You make it difficult to love you sometimes,” she said in response, setting what she had done aside so that it could dry properly. Then she turned her head slightly to address him. “Henry, what would you even do if you weren’t in college?” 

“Have you ever read Walden Pond?” 

Natalie sighed, “I sometimes worry that you are completely serious.” 

If they had never gotten together she wasn’t convinced that he wouldn’t be squatting in some half decayed log cabin in the woods and giving lectures about living off the land. 

“Oh, I’d be worried too if I were completely serious,” he agreed with her which was always worrying, “How dreadfully dull.”

She reached over to pack the materials she hadn’t used yet back in the box. “I hate when you deliberately misinterpret me.” 

“I hate when you use hyperbole to say you hate when you really just find it to be a charming minor annoyance.” 

“You wish,” she said, turning slightly so she could rest her legs against his. Then Natalie leaned over and kissed him, which probably proved him right which she hated. “You should go finish your homework.” 

“This is my favorite game,” he told her, stealing another kiss from her. “Keep telling me I need to do something I don’t want to do while providing a better alternative.”

“It’s not a game,” Natalie insisted, though now that she actually thought about it she did send sort of mixed signals that would be confusing. “You should go do your homework and make me lunch.” 

Henry laughed in response because he was nearly never not good natured, and pressed a brief kiss against her cheek. “I see your angle, and I offer you this alternative: I do not do my homework, we keep kissing instead, and I order delivery.” 

“Tempting offer,” she pretended to think about it. She had already half lost considering she was practically sitting on his lap and had initiated the kissing. “However, I don’t kiss boys that will eventually fail out of college.” 

“Well,” he settled his chin on her shoulder. “That’s it then. It’s been nice dating you, but this is obviously the time where we break up.” 

“That’s it?” Natalie asked, nudging him off her shoulder. “After everything, you agree to a break up because you don’t want to finish a paper you already started?”

“Yes,” Henry told her, though his grip was still loosely around her waist so she doubted the sincerity of his claim. “Are you mad you didn’t think to try this earlier?”

“You’re such a dope,” she said. “Final offer: we keep dating...don’t get too excited- I like the break from dorm living, I’ll order delivery, you write one more full paragraph, and maybe, just maybe, there might be some kissing involved later.” 

“Hold on,” he said. “I need to recover from that moment of nearly forming an ego.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m good now. You have a deal, but you cannot order pizza.” 

Natalie frowned, because she was fairly certain that he only threw that in because he wanted to win this negotiation in some form. And she preferred to win. “What if I order pizza and we do the break up thing?” 

“You have a deal but then you are paying for lunch,” he told her. 

She sighed, “Fine, we will go with your deal.” 

Henry leaned in to kiss her, and she turned her head so he got her cheek. He laughed, and gently pushed her legs off of his. “Order your food, I will go write a paragraph.” 

Natalie reached up and pinched his cheek in response, and he playfully swatted her hand away before standing up and returning to the living room. She got up as well, pausing the music on her phone as she searched for somewhere to get food.


End file.
